Advertisers like to make infographics. Some are useful, some not. This one came to my math blog, for which it didn’t fit at all. But it looks useful for writers.

It’s always wise to have another person proofread your story. I don’t know anything about the company that made the infographic, but you can usually find a friend (or hire someone locally) to check your work.

Proofreading tip: Before sending out your manuscript (or self-publishing), do a search for very and try to replace each one. Also search for words ending in ly and for the being verbs (am, is, are, was, were, been) and try to eliminate most of them. You can’t get rid of them all, but each one that you replace with a more vibrant word will make your story that much stronger.

Master proofreading tip: After you’ve done the searches, load your file into a program that can do text-to-speech and listen to the whole thing while reading along. You’ll be amazed how many little errors slipped through the editing stage.

Magic is a Treacherous Guide

As a child, Terrin of Xell was almost devoured by a spirit from the Dark Forest. She knows better than to trust magic. But when her friend Chris was accused of a magical crime he didn’t commit, she couldn’t let him face banishment alone. So she and her friends get caught up in a quest to recover an ancient relic, with only magic to guide them.

And everything is going wrong.

First, Chris went missing, his trail washed away by spring rains. Now Arnold’s injured, and the countryside buzzes with rumors of war. In the forest, the wraiths—tiger-like, reptilian creatures—grow dangerously aggressive. Then Terrin starts seeing visions of a madwoman in the shadows.

Are Terrin and her friends being hunted?

Or has the magic decided to turn against them?

After a long year of editing, formatting, proofreading, sweat, and tears, Teresa Gaskins’s new book Hunted: The Riddled Stone ~ Book Two is finally available in paperback or ebook format at booksellers all around the Internet:

• Read an excerpt: the first five chapters of Hunted.
• Buy the paperback:
• Amazon worldwide
• Book Depository
• Barnes & Noble
• CreateSpace



• Buy the ebook:
• Amazon ebook worldwide
• Barnes & Noble Nook
• Kobo
• Scribd
• Smashwords

Hunted is the second book in The Riddled Stone, a fantasy series by homeschooled teen author Teresa Gaskins. To celebrate the release of Hunted, the ebook version of Banished‌—‌the first book in the series‌—‌will be on sale for 99 cents through the end of June.

I’ve been wanting to start a new series of blog posts on the things I’ve learned about self-publishing for homeschoolers: tips, links, resources, mistakes to avoid, stuff like that.

Someday, when things settle down a bit.

But for now, there’s a new book out that’s on discount for about another week, according to the author:

• Pictures on Kindle, by Aaron Shepard

It’s a great resource, and I highly recommend it if you want to publish ebooks that contain images (or even just an author photo, which every book should have). I don’t know what the final price will be, but it’s definitely worth the current 99-cent charge.

And while you’re shopping, Aaron’s From Word to Kindle is also very helpful. But he’s currently revising the book, so you might want to wait on Version 3. You can read quite a few of the revisions for free at the From Word to Kindle blog.

My daughter originally started her blog to showcase her stories, and I thoroughly enjoy reading them. But recently she bought a new computer, so she wrote a review of the Windows 8 operating system, with tips on how to navigate the new interface — and look what happened to her blog traffic.

Moral of the story: If you want to bring more traffic to your blog, be useful.

Assignment: Solve a Reader’s Problem

Think about what your readers want or need:

• to find good homeschooling resources
• to discover what a homeschooler’s life is really like
• to find great tips and practical advice
• to laugh
• to be entertained
• to know the latest news
• to hear new viewpoints
• to think deeply about a topic
• to learn how to ________
• to improve their skills at ________
• to know that they aren’t the only one who struggles with ________

Write a blog post that solves a reader’s problem, either one from the list above or something else you think of. And then come here and give us (in the comments) a link to your post so we can all enjoy it.

[Photo by Olga Berrios via flickr.]

My daughter continues to put me to shame with her writing output. After she published her first novel this summer, she dug right into writing the sequel. She took a month off for NaNoWriMo (by the NaNo rules, you have to start a brand-new book, so she tried something different: science fiction), then jumped right back into The Riddled Stone, Book Two.

And today she finished it!

Of course, there are still several months of editing to look forward to. She’s decided to tackle the first round of editing on her own, which I consider a sign of her maturing as a writer. Then we’ll have to go through it together to catch the typos (there are always typos) and make sure everything makes sense. And then do typesetting, and create a cover, and all that — it will be several months until the book is ready for the public. But she’s making great progress.

And by the way, you don’t need a Kindle to read her first book, Banished (The Riddled Stone, Book One). You can access it on your computer, tablet, or smart phone using Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader or a Kindle Reading App. Or if you’re a member of Amazon Prime, you can borrow the book (or my math book) for free.

photo by Noël Zia Lee

WordPress.com offers a special treat for the holiday season: Snow on your blog. If you’d like to make it snow, follow these easy instructions:

• Go to your dashboard.
• Navigate to Settings » General.
• Check the box next to “Show falling snow on this blog.”
  (It’s way down at the bottom of the page.)

If you had snow on your blog last year, WordPress.com remembers your setting: It’ll still be on for this year.

Now, I’d better go change my header photo to make it look like winter…

photo by dougwoods via flickr

My daughter, Princess Kitten, just finished her fourth year of NaNoWriMo. In addition to working on her novel, she wrote a blog post of tips for other young writers:

• 
  How I Write Writing Tips #1

An excerpt:

Sometimes it’s hard to get started. After all, a blank page is pretty scary. It’s kinda like a zombie—only instead of eating your brains, it eats your creativity. I wouldn’t be surprised if, second to writer’s block, a blank page was a writer’s worst enemy.

Go read the whole post on Kitten’s blog!

photo by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Katelyn is back with more great tips for amateur photographers. Check out her post:

• 5 tips for blogging your photos

“My goal in blogging is to put pictures together in a visually pleasing way and tell a story through them. I love to create beautiful things, and blog posts are one way I can do that. I love looking at a post I’ve just finished and feeling like it’s exactly how I pictured it in my head…”

Click here to read the whole post.

If You’re Not a Photographer

If you are posting photos that don’t belong to you, remember that you have to be careful about copyrights. Make sure the photographer has released the photos for general use, and remember to give credit:

• Warning: Don’t Copy!

The whole point of a blog is to write posts, to share ideas, to express yourself. But when you sit down at the computer and face a blank screen, how do you think of something to write?

Assignment: Brainstorm 10 Post Ideas

photo by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

It’s the all-time most-asked question about writing: “Where do you get ideas?”

Here are several bits of helpful advice:

• Brainstorming Techniques

Try one of the brainstorming techniques listed, or any other method you like, and make a list of at least ten possible topics you could write about for your blog. Even better, try to get 20 ideas — the longer your list, the more likely you are to find something that really sparks your imagination, something you just can’t wait to write about.

If you like writing prompts to kick-start your brain, check out one of my favorite prompt sites:

• Dragon Writing Prompts

• Ignite to Write!

• Plinky Prompts

Once you find a topic you like, try one of these methods to stretch that topic for all it is worth. You may find that one simple topic could give you enough ideas for a whole series of blog posts!

• How to Freewrite

• How to Make a Mind Map

• Venn Diagram

Write a Blog Post Using One of Your Ideas

Pick your favorite idea from the brainstorming list, and turn it into a blog post. For longer posts, you will probably want to save your first draft so you can re-read and edit it later:

And before you click that big, blue “Publish” button, be sure to proofread your post!!!

photo by Michael Rolph

One excellent way to draw traffic to your blog is to publish useful tips. Student blogger Katelyn is a talented amateur photographer, and she offers a couple of posts to help you build your own skills:

• 5 ways to use your point and shoot more effectively
  “Have you ever felt like smashing your camera because it won’t let you take the picture you have in your head? Here’s how to get the best results from your family camera.”

• 5 tips for navigating your new dslr
  “So you’ve just purchased your “big” camera and you’re waiting for the battery to charge so you can start shooting. You’re super excited, and also feeling a little bit of trepidation. Here are some tips that will help you tremendously.”

Assignment: Be Useful

What are you good at? What has experience taught you? What advice can you offer? If you’re a homeschooler, what learning resources have you loved (or hated) and why? Write a blog post to share something useful you have learned.

Your Dashboard is your blog’s main control panel. Take this quick video tour, and after that we’ll look closer at the Dashboard and tweak several settings to make your blog as safe and reader-friendly as we can.

If you would like a checklist to guide you through this lesson, print out the Blog Settings Handout.

Assignment #6: Explore the Dashboard

Log in to your WordPress.com account, and look around. Here are a few things to notice:

The Gray Admin Bar at the top is always visible when you are logged in. This gives you an easy way to get back to your Dashboard (your main control panel) from anywhere on WordPress.com. Just hover your mouse over your blog’s name, and then click Dashboard from the drop-down menu. Go to your blog’s Dashboard and look around.

When you’re on the Dashboard, you can click your blog’s name to go to your blog. Do that, and then see if you can find all the basic parts of a blog:

• Header = where your blog name is shown.
• Sidebar = links and information to help your readers.
• Hello world post = your homework (see below).
• About page = more homework.

Go back to your Dashboard and take a look around. Can you find all the following?

• Sidebar Menu = all sorts of different places to find information about your blog.
• Right Now = a quick glance at what’s on your blog.
• Quick Press = an easy way to enter a short blog post and either Save Draft (if you plan to work on it more later) or Publish it right away.
• Recent Comments = a quick way to moderate or remove comments. A big part of the fun of blogging is interacting with your readers through comments, so DON’T delete people’s comments unless they are mean or are spam. (But you will delete the sample comment as part of your homework.)
• Recent Drafts = the posts you have started writing but have not yet published.
• Stats = information about how many people have visited your blog recently. It does not count your own visits (if you are logged in).

Assignment #7: Tweak Your Settings

Now let’s get to work. Look in your sidebar for these options. If you don’t see sub-menus, then mouse over the name of the menu category to reveal the options.

• Users > My Profile > Type your internet alias into the Display name publicly as box. The rest of the page can be left blank, for privacy.

• Users > My Profile > If you have an avatar or photo that you like (perhaps one that you use on a social networking site), you can click the Gravatar link and follow the directions.

• Remember to click Update Profile!

• Settings > General > Set your Site Title to whatever you want to appear on your blog.

• Settings > General > Remove the default Tagline, and leave it blank OR enter a short phrase that describes your blog.

• Settings > General > Set your Timezone to match a city near you.

• Remember to click  Save Changes!

Assignment #8: Encourage Comments

• Settings > Discussion > All three of the Default article settings boxes should be checked.

• Settings > Discussion > Under Other comment settings, I only require the name and email (the top box).

• Settings > Discussion > For Email me whenever, all these boxes should be checked.

• Settings > Discussion > For Before a comment appears, IF you want to moderate comments, then check the box that says, “An administrator must always approve the comment.”

• Settings > Discussion > Yes, there’s still more! In the Comment Moderation section, there is a big box. Type into it every nasty, hateful word you can think of (or have your parents do this), one word per line. Any comment that has any of these words will automatically be held for moderation, no matter what your other settings are.

• Settings > Discussion > Be careful: do NOT enter any words in the Comment Blacklist box!

• Settings > Discussion > Almost done! Check the Follow Comments and Follow Blog boxes, because those options are very helpful to your readers.

• Settings > Discussion > Choose your Maximum Rating. Pick the type of Default Avatar you want to use (for commenters who don’t have their own pictures).

• Remember to click Save Changes!

Assignment #9: Now for Some Fun

• Appearance > Themes > Finally, time to play! WordPress.com offers more than 200 blog themes to choose from, so you should be able to find at least one that matches your personality. Click Preview to see what the theme looks like. Click Activate if you want to keep it.

Assignment #10: Start Blogging!

1. Edit the Hello world post to tell about yourself. Remember to follow Internet safety! No full names or other personal details, but share with us a little about your hobbies, favorite books to read, favorite subjects in school, pets, or other interesting things. Be sure to click Update to save your changes!

2. Delete the sample comment.

3. Edit the About page to tell about you. Feel free to copy part of what you wrote in your Hello world post. Remember to click Update.

Image by minifig via Flickr

Kyle offers some good advice about how to polish your blog posts before you hit that big, blue “Publish” button. Check out his post:

• Tips for writing a good blog post (learned the hard way)

And there’s still time to join the Student Blogging Challenge for the fall semester. The Student Blogging Challenge runs twice yearly, and the two terms are named for the month they start: March and September.

The Challenge is made up of a series of 10 weekly tasks designed to improve your blogging and commenting skills and to connect blogging students with a global audience. If you’re starting late, don’t worry about trying to do every challenge. Just take the ones that sound interesting, and have fun with them.

For more information about the Student Blogging Challenge, read Info For First Time Visitors.

Attention, Student Bloggers

This is the second post in my Blogging 101 Series. If you missed last week’s Introduction post, be sure to go back and read it!

Also check out this post from the Blogging2Learn archive:

• Why WordPress.com?

Assignment #4: Make Up a Password

You will need a password that you can remember but that no one else will be able to guess. For tips, read How To Make (and Remember!) a Strong Password.

Parents can be useful, so be sure to share your password with them. The password lets them get onto your blog to proofread your posts (as I said, very useful ), remove offensive comments, delete spam, etc.

NEVER share your password with ANYONE except your parents!

Assignment #5: Sign Up for a WordPress.com Account

Follow the instructions in the video above.

Remember: Do NOT put your real name in the optional Profile section! You may leave those boxes blank, if you wish — but if you do enter information, be sure to follow the internet safety rules.

So I’ve decided to refresh everything by starting up a new Blogging 101 Series, using several of the wonderful WordPress.com tutorial videos and adding tips especially for student bloggers. I hope you find it useful!

Attention, Student Bloggers

If you are an elementary or middle-school student starting your first blog, I have three important assignments for you…

Assignment #1: Talk About Internet Safety

If you are new to the internet, read Kim Komando’s 10 Commandments for Kids Online. The most important thing to remember for blogging is that personally identifying information is NOT ALLOWED: no full names, no addresses, no phone numbers or email addresses, not even the name of your home town – and don’t share your friends’ information, either!

Once you know the basics of internet safety, then you and your parents have two decisions to make:

• Will you use your parents’ email or get a separate account?
  Most of the information about your blog will be sent to you by email, so this needs to be an account that is checked frequently. For Kitten, I set up a separate account and then have my email program check it automatically whenever I check my own mail. If she has a message, I can let her know.

• Will you moderate comments?
  All bloggers love to get comments, and normally you don’t want to do anything to discourage someone from commenting. I suggest that you DO NOT moderate comments, but just keep a watch on your email notifications. Nasty comments are very rare, but if any of them do come through, you can delete them right away. Some parents prefer to keep a tighter control on their students’ blogs, however, so the decision belongs to you and your parents.
  [Note: Whatever you decide, it is easy to change your mind later, if you want to go the other way.]

Assignment #2: Look at Other Homeschoolers’ Blogs

Take some time to browse several student blogs. Click the links below to see what a couple of my homeschool co-op bloggers did:

• Intellectual Ramblings
• Kitten’s Purring
• Check out the Homeschool Kids Blog Carnival for more ideas.

Notice that the students post a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction, serious writing and humorous stories, family stories, book reports, favorite jokes, videos, pictures, and more. Some blogs (like mine) are topical or based on a certain theme, though the writer may wander off down an occasional rabbit trail. Other blogs are personal, following the author’s interests wherever they may drift.

Also pay attention to what the kids call themselves — how some use their first names, while others invent nicknames. Notice what they call their blogs, and what that tells you about them. That will lead you into the next step…

Assignment #3: Brainstorm Your Own Blog Name and Internet Alias

• What will you call yourself online?

• What will you call your blog?

To get ideas, think about your hobbies and interests. Try to think up 5-10 possibilities, and then choose your favorites. List your top three choices, in order of preference, in case someone else has already used the name you like best. You will need this list when you get ready to set up your blogging account.

Important: Show your list to your parents, so they can warn you if any of the names you chose have unsavory connotations or other meanings that you aren’t aware of.

• Homeschooled Kids Blog Carnival #29

What fun! Go visit several of the students’ posts, and be sure to leave them some encouraging comments.

If you would like to submit a blog article to the next edition of the Homeschooled Kids Blog Carnival, you can use the carnival submission form on the kids blog carnival page. You can also find all the back-issues of the carnival there, for your browsing pleasure.

[Original photo by Skyfisher via flickr.]

Brain Wasko continues his wonderful series about troublesome homophones at Write at Home. Read and learn!

• Troublesome Homophones: Why You Can’t Trust Spell Checkers
• Words We Confuse That Spell Checkers Miss, Part B
• Words We Confuse That Spell Checkers Miss, Part C
• Words We Confuse that Spell Checkers Miss, Part D
• Words We Confuse that Spellcheckers Miss, Part E
• Words We Confuse that Spellcheckers Miss, Part F
• Words We Confuse that Spellcheckers Miss, Part G
• Words We Confuse That Spellcheckers Miss, Part H
• Words We Confuse that Spellcheckers Miss, Parts I and J
• Words We Confuse That Spellcheckers Miss, Parts K and L
• Words We Confuse That Spellcheckers Miss, Part M

More than a year and a half ago, I wrote the following:

The economy has hit us where it hurts — our homeschool co-op was canceled this semester, due to low enrollment. That means no blogging class, although I will continue to post tips and links from time to time.

For now, though, I have thrown myself into a new project: I’m writing a book. Actually, I’m re-writing a series of books that I self-published in the late last century…

Well, the books have taken much longer than I expected, and they’re still not done. But a “beta” edition of the first one is now online at Amazon.com, if you’re interested.

• Let’s Play Math:
  How Homeschooling Families Can Learn Math Together, and Enjoy It!
  Discover new ways to explore math as a family adventure, playing with ideas. True mathematical thinking involves the same creative reasoning that children use to solve puzzles. Introduce your children to the “Aha!” factor, the thrill of solving a challenging puzzle, and build thinking skills with toys, games, and library books. Find out how to choose math manipulatives, or make your own, and learn how to tackle story problems with confidence. Let’s Play Math will give you a wealth of motivating, hands-on ideas for teaching home school math.

HomeschoolLiterature.com has published a short review of my daughter’s book. Cool!

• Banished (The Riddled Stone) by Teresa Gaskins

We figure that there are three types of people who might want to read her book:

1. family
2. friends
3. other homeschoolers, especially tweens or teens who enjoy fantasy and want to be writers

Regular fantasy readers won’t be all that interested in her stories until she matures a bit. She’s not yet ready to “compete” with professionals.

Family and friends we can reach, but figuring out how to connect with other homeschoolers is a bit more difficult, and we really appreciate the help. Thank you, HomeschoolLiterature.com!

The paperback version of my daughter’s book is now “In Stock” at Amazon.

They are even including the book in their buy-3-get-1-free promotion for books and home/garden items. Nice!

My 13-year-old daughter just released her first book on Kindle:

• Banished (The Riddled Stone, Book One)
  Crown Prince Tyler pronounced his judgment: “Christopher Fredrico is banished from the kingdom of North Raec. If he is found within our territory, his life will be forfeit.” All Chris wanted was to be a peaceful scholar who could spend a lot of time with his friends. Now, falsely accused of stealing a magical artifact, he is forced to leave the only home he knows. But as he and his friends travel towards the coast, they find a riddle that may save a kingdom — or cost them their lives.

Teresa (who goes by the internet nickname of Princess Kitten) has done the NaNoWriMo Youth Program as part of her language studies for the past three years and has written many stories on her blog, but this is the first time we’ve followed through and published one of her books.

Naturally I’m biased, but I think she did a pretty good job, as first books go. Her book is clearly the beginning of a series, so she sets up more plot threads than she resolves — but I did convince her not to wait for this year’s NaNoWriMo to start Book Two. (I want to find out what happens next!)

Anyway, if you or your children enjoy fantasy fiction and are interested in reading something written by a fellow homeschooler — and if you have a Kindle or Kindle Reading App — you might want to download the sample chapters of her book and check it out. She would love to get some reviews!

• Troublesome Homophones: Why You Can’t Trust Spell Checkers
• Words We Confuse That Spell Checkers Miss, Part B

Only 24 more letters to go…

Like this infographic? Get more copywriting tips from Copyblogger.

And Another Old Favorite . . .

• Time to register for the challenge

The Student Blogging Challenge runs twice yearly, and the two terms are named for the month they start: March and September. The Challenge is made up of a series of 10 weekly tasks designed to improve your blogging and commenting skills and to connect blogging students with a global audience. You may complete as many of the tasks as you like — and you can do them in any order.

For more information about the Student Blogging Challenge, read these pages:

• Info For First Time Visitors
• Challenge FAQs

I did the challenge last fall, as a class blog, but then I drifted away into other projects when our blogging class was dropped in the spring semester. I’m thinking about doing it again this year — but once again, our blogging class isn’t in session (no wi-fi at our new location). So I don’t know whether I should register as an individual or as a “class”…

• Review/Giveaway and Fibonacci Puzzle

Here is the best-quality recording I could find of her classic skit, VitaMeataVegamin:

More Lucy to Love

• 100 years of Lucille Ball
• Celebrating Lucille Ball at 100: Unpublished Photos
• 15 Things You Never Knew About TV’s Funniest Lady
• Lucille Ball was my landlady…
• We still love Lucy, who would be 100 on Saturday
• Quotations by Lucille Ball
• Lucille Ball at Wikipedia

Image by Jason.Hudson via Flickr

Would you like to share your blog with a friend? That is what Kitten and Gecko decided to do recently. They started a joint blog called Collaborative Randomness — and it is definitely random (and usually funny).

I saw how easy it was for them to set up a blog for two users, so I decided to do the same thing, only backwards. I needed to set up my two blogs for one user. See, originally I had my math blog, and then I started teaching a blogging class for our homeschool co-op. It had been so long since I started my math blog that I wasn’t sure I remembered all the steps, so I started a new blog (this one) totally from scratch, writing down each step.

But trying to juggle two blogging identities (each with their own separate log-ins) became a major nuisance. Solution: Add my math blogger identity as a user on this blog. Now I only have to log in once, and I can access both Dashboards and write posts on both blogs. Cool!

Warning: Be Careful!

Adding someone as a Contributor is always safe, and adding someone as an Author is usually fine. But before you add someone as an Editor or Administrator, you need to be totally sure that you absolutely trust them. Editors can go back and change any of your posts whenever they want, and Administrators have complete control over every aspect of your blog — they could even permanently delete the blog, if they were feeling malicious!

For more information on what the various users can do, read the support page about User Roles.

Here’s How To Do It

Image by Wilson (Army Gal) via Flickr

The 23rd Homeschooled Kids Blog Carnival is now posted, with a nice variety of things to read. Fiction and non-fiction, places to visit and movie/book reviews, lego projects and horse quotations, and even some math, and more. Go visit all the homeschool bloggers, and be sure to leave some comments. Every blogger loves to hear from readers!

• Homeschooled Kids Blog Carnival #22

The kids are writing about a wide variety of interesting things, so go check them out.

P.S.: While you’re in the mood to visit kid blogs, two of my students have teamed up to write a new (and so far, very silly) blog called Collaborative Randomness. We’ve been meeting at Panera Bread once a week for “Writer’s Day Out”, but Gecko is moving out of state, so today was our last day together. The collaborative blog will be a way for them to continue the fun from a distance…

Welcome once again to the homeschooled kids blog carnival. Now that spring is in the air, it’s time to dust off our blogs, get rid of the cobwebs and make some fresh posts…

Go read it!

It’s easy to make one of your static pages into your blog’s home page. Follow these instructions:

Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video via Flickr

Did you get hit by the storm that swept through much of the U.S. this week? We didn’t get as much snow as they were predicting, but we got enough ice to knock out the power substation. You can read about it at my math blog:

• Our Power Outage Adventure

And while you’re there, be sure to check out World Maths Day 2011!

Related Articles

• This Is the Apocalyptic Storm Hitting the US Right Now (gizmodo.com)
• Ameren Illinois Battles Outages Caused by Massive Winter Storm (prnewswire.com)
  Yep, we were among the “outaged.” Even though we use a rural power co-op, it was Ameren’s substation that knocked us off the grid.

“It’s time for another edition of the Homeschooled Kids Blog Carnival! I wish you all a warm welcome –– and a Happy New Year. And the new year is the theme for our carnival this month. It seems like a time for new things to happen, doesn’t it? New adventures, new opportunities – and new things to learn…”

Read the whole carnival at Home Education Resources!

Image by amypalko via Flickr

The economy has hit us where it hurts — our homeschool co-op was canceled this semester, due to low enrollment. That means no blogging class, although I will continue to post tips and links from time to time.

For now, though, I have thrown myself into a new project: I’m writing a book. Actually, I’m re-writing a series of books that I self-published in the late last century. But the first one, which I hope to finish this year (or maybe even by summer? that’s probably too optimistic!) was never published before. It will be all about math games.

I’m also working to edit Kitten’s and Niner’s books, so we can publish them. I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as they’re available.

• Challenge 8 and 9
• Challenge 10

I didn’t do a very good job of keeping up with the challenges, but I sure enjoyed the student blogs I read. But then, you really don’t have to do these challenges in any particular time period — most of them are good blogging ideas at any time. So if you never joined in the challenge, you can still go read the student blogs and get inspiration!